Telescoping fishing rods have been devised in the past in which the rod sections are at least capable of being partially telescoped into a hollow handle portion. Customarily, the practice has been to form a fixed connection between the butt end of the first or largest rod section and the handle and then to telescope or collapse the rod sections through the front end of the handle. For the most part, this practice has been followed for rod sections in which the line passes internally through the rod sections, as opposed to being threaded through line guides on the exterior of the rod sections and, for example, reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,447,254 to N. Sobel et al, 3,618,253 to M. R. Edwards et al, 3,789,533 to A. L. Bowerfind et al, 3,862,509 to J. Petersen, Jr., 4,237,639 to Y. Uemori et al, 4,541,197 to L. J. LeRoue and 2,541,609 to J. F. Pullan. It is extremely important, however, in rod sections having external line guides that both the rod sections and line guides be fully protected in the collapsed or stored position and to the extent that they are fully enclosed or encased within a rugged outer housing or casing but at the same time can be collapsed into the most compact position possible. Of the telescoping fishing rods that have been devised having line guides, to the best of my knowledge, no one has devised an arrangement whereby the rod sections can be fully collapsed into a tubular handle and the line guides fully protected when in the stored position. U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,738 to J. W. Koos discloses a telescoping fishing rod assembly in which the rod joints are telescoped through the front end of the rod but requires a clamp on the handle which engages the line guides when the rod sections. U.S. Pat. No. 564,742 to F. K. Dunn discloses telescoping rod sections with line guides which can be partially telescoped into a handle, and the same is true of U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,064,030 to C. A. Tredwell and 1,586,446 to A. Viers.
It is also desirable to construct the fishing rod assembly in such a way that it is interchangeable for use either as a fly rod or spin-casting rod. Specifically, to achieve this end, it is important that the hand grip can be reversibly mounted with respect to the rod sections so that the reel support is at the rearward end of the hand grip when the rod is to be used as a fly rod and more at the forward end of the hand grip when the rod is to be used as a casting rod. It has been found that this can be achieved in a novel and improved manner in a telescoping fishing rod assembly so as to achieve maximum versatility but at the same time fully cover and protect the rod assembly when not in use.